By empty (3/17/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Armenian Foreign Ministry is making arrangements, including issuing visas, to enable members of Iraq\'s Armenian community to travel to Armenia in the event of hostilities in Iraq, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said on National Television the previous evening. The Armenian diaspora in Iraq is estimated to number several tens of thousands. Oskanian said the families of Armenian diplomats in Baghdad have already been evacuated.

By empty (3/17/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakh border guards have seized three Azerbaijani boats for allegedly poaching in Kazakhstan\'s Caspian Sea territorial waters. A Border Service press release said that the Azerbaijani vessels were found to be in possession of more than 1 1/2 tons of sturgeon. According to the report, the Azerbaijanis were escorted to Aktau, the administrative center of the western Kazakhstan Mangystau Oblast, where the Kazakh Customs Control Agency and the regional prosecutor\'s office opened an investigation.

By empty (3/11/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The charismatic leader of Turkey\'s governing party was named prime minister Tuesday, a step that probably boosts chances the United States will get permission to deploy troops in the country along Iraq \'s northern border. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who favors the deployment, hinted that he will reshuffle the Cabinet, but gave no indication if he would purge officials who opposed letting in the troops, as analysts have suggested he might do. Erdogan is extremely popular in Turkey and is likely be one of the few leaders with enough clout to unite his party and gain public support for allowing in the U.